CODA Chorus Spring Program Narrative

In this Spring 2024 program, we sing songs about kindness and friendship using the words of American poets and composers who explore these themes through the metaphors of the night, embellished by the beauty of starlight, and the awaking of the morning and the dawning of a new day. In one song, Evening Star, Edgar Allan Poe’s poem connects poetry and music as he describes gazing at a star: “As wonder filled my heart, a song began to rise.” Dreams appear throughout these songs as well, where, in the words of Langston Hughes, “love will bless the Earth,” and “where all will know sweet freedom’s way.” Odina Batnag reminds us that as citizens of the world, “we are one.”  Likewise, Leonard Bernstein writes in Dream With Me,” We’re together if we dream the same sweet dream.” Emily Dickinson asks, “Will There Really Be a Morning?” Join us on April 27th, 4pm at Hope Baptist Church in Manchester to find out!

Concert Program

Evening Star, Music by Victor C. Johnson, Words by Edgar Allan Poe

Voices of the Night, Music by Donna Gartman Schultz, Words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sure On This Shining Night, Music by Morten Lauridsen, Words by James Agee, Duet by Sarah Pelletier and David Robbin

Dream a World, Music by André J. Thomas, Words by Langston Hughes

I Am But A Small Voice, Music by Roger Whittaker (arr. by John Coates, Jr.), Words by Odina E. Batnag

Flower Into Kindness, Music by Jake Runestad, Words by Mechthild von Magdeburg and Rabindranath Tagore

The Arrow and the Song, Music by Christopher Matthew, Words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Dream With Me, Music and words by Leonard Bernstein, Arranged by Larry Moore

Over the Rainbow, Music by Harold Arlen (arr. by Teena Chinn), Words by E. Y. Harburg

Will There Really Be a Morning?, Music by Victor C. Johnson, Words by Emily Dickinson

Here Comes the Sun, Music and Words by George Harrison, Arranged by Alan Billingsley

Perfect Day, Music and Words by Miriam Stockley and Colin Towns, Arranged by Brendan Wilson

You Raise Me Up, Music and Words by Brendan Graham and Rolf Lovland, Arranged by Roger Emerson

The Awakening, Music and Words by Joseph M. Martin